McPherson wraps up 2012 street projects

Tuesday

Nov 20, 2012 at 12:35 PMNov 20, 2012 at 12:38 PM

City officials discussed the progress on street and sewer projects in 2012 at a town hall meeting Monday night.

By Cristina JanneyManaging Editor

City officials discussed the progress on street and sewer projects in 2012 at a town hall meeting Monday night.
A sewer extension for the Veranda project in north McPherson has been completed, and the new streets and storm sewers will be under construction shortly.
A member of the audience asked city officials if allowing a developer to finish buildings before streets and a storm water system is completed will be a new precedence.
Mayor Tom Brown said the city is trying to work with the Veranda developers. He said the developers were trying to get the outer shells of buildings up before the weather turned bad so interior work could continue through the winter.
Brown said a certificate of occupancy will not be issued until the streets and storm sewer system are completed.
Also under development is the Barnstormer West Field Addition, which will be south of the Calvary Baptist Church.
The sewer extension and street and storm sewer system for the new addition is out for bid, Doug Whitacre, director of public works, told the town hall meeting.
Other 2012 projects have included a resurface of North High Drive, a mill and overlay for Briarwood, Arcadian and North Baer, a Hancock Street reconstruction, and reconstruction of the 1300 block of Eastmoor Drive.
The city will be gearing up for several large street projects in 2013.
The Board of Public utilities is currently replacing the water main underneath Main Street. The utility wished to finish the project before the city did a mill and overlay project on Main Street from Kansas Avenue to First Street in 2013.
Main Street from Kansas Avenue south to railroad tracks will be Novachiped. This is a thinner layer of asphalt than is used in a mill and overlay project.
Finally, thanks to a sales tax passed during the August primary, the city will let bids on the First Street reconstruction project in spring.
Due in part to heavy truck traffic, the road has severely degraded.
Whitacre said construction on the First Street project will begin after school is out for the summer. The project is estimated to cost $8 million and take a year and a half to complete.
Mausoleum
Wayne Morgan of Oakland Avenue Craftsman Co. gave a final report at the town hall on the McPherson Mausoleum project. The $325,000 project, which began in February, is set to be completed today.
The project on the building, which was built in the 1930s, included repairs to the roof, addition of new storm windows, refinishing of the main doors, and tuck and pointing of the exterior of the building.
In addition, all of the marble facing of the crypts had to be removed to replace black granite at the base of the crypt walls that had cracked.
The heating and air-conditioning system for the mausoleum was replaced to allow the building to be kept at a more consistent temperature and prevent future damage.
The city is planning an open house for the mausoleum. A date has not been set.